“Islamophobia” does not exist – Fearing Islam is quite rational.

Since returning to university, I’ve been slowly reintegrating myself back into the student life. In one of my breaks from parties and acting like a bit of a drunken miscreant – I decided to tune into Question Time. I don’t know why I thought the opinions from the electorate in Liverpool would be especially exciting – I know from Churchill that often, the best arguments against democracy are formed by conversations with the electorate. But there was one thing in particular that annoyed me.

A woman in the video above (towards the end) said that Britain has a problem with Islamophobia – citing as evidence the Daily Express headlines about Muslims blowing up the Pope. Firstly, the Express is hardly evidence that British society has widespread ‘Islamophobia’. Finally, would anyone be surprised if the accusation did have a basis to it? It was not Jews or Buddhists or anyone else that tried to Bomb Glasgow Airport, blow up a flight on Christmas Day or kill and traumatise countless innocent civilians on the Underground and Buses.

I want to tackle the illusion of “Islamophobia” though, for “phobia” means to hold an irrational fear of something. There are very few concerns about Islam that are expressed from irrationality. Most fears regarding Islam are entirely rational and legitimate – and the invention of this new lexicon “Islamophobia” – is largely the latest attempt to sideline debate and deflect blame from Islam for what its teachings, and consequently, followers have done and are doing.

There are two main questions one has to ask regarding this fear. Who holds the fear, and what do they have to fear?

Well, if you’re a homosexual – then the law used by Muslims thinks you should be executed. As a poll in the Guardian reported – 0% of Muslims think that homosexuality is “acceptable”.

If you are Jewish, then your prospects aren’t much better. Islam is inherently anti-semitic. The Qur’anic passages speak for themselves – such as Al-Ma’idah 41, Al-Imran 78, Al-Baqarah 87 and Hadith such as Al-Bukhari. In these respective passages, Muslims are told either to kill, or to heavily tax Jews, to be suspicious of Jews and not to mix with them or “take friends among them”, not to mention the Anti-Semitism involving Holocaust Denial and eradicating Israel.

If you’re a former Muslim, then as an apostate you should be executed. If you’re a non-muslim, then your life as a monotheist is worth half of a muslim and your life as a polytheist is worth between 1.5 and 5% that of a muslim (according to the current Sharia law code in Saudi Arabia – as described in Al-Dawud).

If you’re a woman, then your legal testimony is worth only half that of a male; If you are raped, then you’re deemed to be an adulterer worthy at least of 100 lashes, if not execution. You’re also allowed to be 1 of 4 wives to any man – without any real legal recourse or objection. In certain sects, you will be expected to wear a Burqa. If you don’t like the Husband found for you – then you can expect a nice flight to Pakistan until the idea grows on you.

If you’re for the rule of law, then the introduction of Sharia Civil Law Courts will not really impress you, and neither will the fact 40% want full Sharia Law. Nor will the fact that most of the terrorism that has happened recently in the UK – has been from Muslims who have grown up and studied in the UK relatively free from discrimination – with all the benefits of citizenship. The Christmas Day bomber and the 7/7 bombers were all UK nationals, radicalised in the UK whilst gaining an education in the UK.

If one is for human rights, I doubt the record on child brides, forced marriages (especially to first cousins), female genital mutilation, suicide bombing and firing rockets at free democratic countries is something to convince you there is nothing to fear from Islam. If one is for democracy, one will not be impressed by ayatollahs, monarchs and dictator after dictator parading around as if the world is their birthright.

The argument that the West can do no good and that Islam can do no bad doesn’t really work. No one is suggesting that the West at times doesn’t have faults – but in culture and liberty, it is far superior to anything that Islam has had to offer. Everything is relative, and in relation to each other – it is the West with the higher ideals. “Islamophobia” implies that there is nothing (rationally) to fear from Islam worldwide – when, if you’re a woman, a homosexual, an apostate, a non-muslim, a Jew, a rape-victim, a minority, pro-rule of law, pro-democracy or anything remotely supportive of western ideals – you have much to fear.